Mumbai, India – Essar Group, a multinational conglomerate and a leading player in the sectors of Steel, Oil & Gas, Power, Communications, Shipping Ports & Logistics, Construction and Minerals, today said that it has successfully completed acquisition of AGC Networks, including closure of the offer representing 20% of AGC Networks’ outstanding shares. The total deal size was $61.4 million.

The acquisition was done through Essar Capital Finance Pvt. Ltd. (ECF) with Essar Services Holdings Ltd. (ESHL) as Person Acting in Concert. Following the acquisition of Avaya’s 59.13% stake in AGC Networks and the subsequent open offer, Essar’s stake in AGC Networks, previously known as Avaya GlobalConnect Ltd., has now become 79.13%.

Following the successful closure of the transaction, AGC Networks will function independently. AGC’s board has been reconstituted with Ayaya’s representatives stepping down, and S K Jha taking charge as the Managing Director along with its Jt. Managing Director, Anil Nair. The current management of AGC is expected to continue to spearhead the business.

Earlier in May, Essar had announced the acquisition of Avaya’s stake in AGC Networks, which is a leading player in the contact centre, unified communications, and networking space as a solutions integrator.

“We warmly welcome AGC Networks employees into the Essar family. AGC perfectly complements Essar’s young and fast growing solutions integration arm and we have definitive plans to take this business global. AGC Networks is an important block in our overall ‘customer experience’ portfolio. We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with AGC’s existing partners, customers and vendors who can look forward to benefiting from Essar’s global scale, depth, and spread,” Aparup Sengupta, Managing Director and Global CEO of Essar’s IT and BPO vertical.

S K Jha, President, Essar’s IT vertical said, “AGC Networks, with its cutting edge solutions and roster of marquee clients, provides a great synergy with our systems integration business. Customers will now have an extended portfolio of services, that include unified communication, networking, information security, and applications, to chose from. In the immediate future, we plan to aggressively market our joint solutions in new geographies like the Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific.”

With AGC Networks under its fold, Essar’s IT is now a formidable player in the solutions integration space with a wide array of services portfolio and best-of-breed vendor partnerships. The business worldwide has about 2,000 employees operating out of nine countries.

About Essar GroupThe Essar Group is a multinational conglomerate and a leading player in the sectors of Steel, Oil & Gas, Power, Communications, Shipping Ports & Logistics, Construction and Minerals. With operations in more than 20 countries across five continents, the Group employs 60,000 people, with revenues of USD 15 billion.

About ESHLESHL is the company having investments in the Aegis group, which is a world-leading outsourcing services partner for more than 135 clients and with over two decades of leadership in total customer lifecycle management. The company has more than 39,000 employees across 42 locations, with a presence in ten countries, serving verticals such as BFSI, Telecom, Healthcare, Travel & Hospitality, Consumer Goods, Retail and Technology. The company specializes in tailor-made solutions that cover the entire spectrum of customer and business experiences—across business processing, technology, and shared services—and offers customized engagement models to further facilitate the ease of doing business. Aegis is wholly owned by the Essar Group—a US$15 billion conglomerate.For more information, please visit www.aegisglobal.com.”